Most of the day was spent traveling. I woke up at about 4:30AM Phoenix time. My plane left AZ at 6:45AM. There was a short layover in Kansas City, MO (where the TSA agent commented on the number of people flying out to Boston for "that gaming convention") but eventually I landed in Boston around 4:10PM. I immediately hooked up with Jonathan "Xyger" Landeros, a favorite Best Friend of the Kinda Funny community, and we shared an Uber into downtown Boston.

Checking into the hotel, we joined Alex and Tony from Irrational Passions, Joe from SomethingGamez, his friend Vicky, and Xyger's friend C(l)arissa (I don't remember if there was an "L" in there or not) (EDIT: Karyssa). Oh, heads up, I'm also about 5 or 6 drinks in as I write this so I apologize for any belligerence.

Dinner with Friends

So after discovering how absolutely and laughably screwed we are in fitting 10 to 11 people into our tiny two-bedroom room, half of us went to grab dinner before heading to the IGN/Battleborn party.

A few of us grabbed dinner at a burrito place near the hotel. And I was asked about Stardew Valley so I wound up taking up most of the time to discuss the glory of that game. And since Joe from SomethingGamez didn't know about Harvest Moon, I got to expound the glories of both games over burritos.

Eventually, we went over to and got in line for the IGN/Battleborn party. We hung out for an hour or so waiting for the doors to open. And unfortunately, the under-21 members of our party weren't able to join us in the long run but it was nice just shooting the shit with them during the wait to get inside.

Dress for the Job You Want

During the PlayStation Experience in December, I introduced the Trevor Trove persona where I wander the convention floor wearing a nerdy shirt, a nice sports coat, and my 8-bit glasses. In anticipation for tonight's IGN party, I attended wearing an IGN shirt that I picked up from the IGN House Party last year.

I absolutely loved the half dozen times somebody pulled me aside to ask me what I did for IGN. And every time, my response was, I'm an "Nothing! But I'm an aspiriring Freelancer."

That said, I did get to chat with a few IGN staff members while "incognito." I finally met Twitter friend and IGN freelancer Jakejames Lugo. I took the opportunity to congratulate Kiersten Slater on throwing an excellent party (see tweet below). And I caught Ryan McCaffrey for a few minutes to talk No Man's Sky and the general insanity of all the games coming out in May. And just reinforce that "hey, don't be a dick on Twitter" mentality: Ryan knew me by name from our cordial Twitter interactions over the past few months so we had a great exchange, talking about out first PAX East experiences.

I also got to catch up with Max Scoville for a few minutes at the bar. Maybe not by name, but he at least remembered my visage from PSX and/or when I was in San Francisco for Kinda Funny Live and/or the Beyond 400 IGN House Party. And that's what a lot of this trip was about to me: networking. I'm all too eager to keep getting my face/name in front of the IGN editors if that's the end goal job-wise.

Bonus: there was a brief moment where the Kinda Funny guys were all in an Uber out in front of the IGN party. I noticed Nick Scarpino when he poked his head out of the car and waved at the guys as they went by. I look forward to hanging out with them later in the week.

But perhaps the coolest moment for me, personally, was when a fellow Kinda Funny fan recognized me from my appearance on the Gamescast and the Symphony of the Night Book Club (rather than as a fake IGN employee). So here's a shout out to Nick Ushinski (aka @DJMuttonChops) for introducing himself! Great meeting you, buddy!

And the last couple hours have consisted of the 10 of us crammed in our little two-bed hotel room, catching up and talking about the weekend's plans. We're in for a great time!